TABLE OF CONTENTS. PART I. Chap. I. — The preaching of Jesus Christ — Some believe our Lord's words, others reject them — Whence arises this difference of attitude and conduct 17 Chap. II. — The manner in which the Christian Faith took possession of the world — An example of the conversion of learned men and philosophers — St. Justin 36 Chap. III. — Decisive triumph of Christianity in the Roman world — End of the persecutions — Constellation of great men in the bosom of the Church of the fourth century 44 Chap. IV.— St. Augustine— His unbelief and his return to the Faith 49 § I. — How Augustine loses the Faith — He rapidly descends all the steps of unbelief— He falls into materialism and scepticism 50 § II. — Augustine's return to the Faith — He passes through an intellectual and moral crisis before his conversion 59 Chap. V. — The Christian Faith of the Middle Ages — It is paramount in society and governs men of high intellect as well as the common people — Was this a blind Faith? 72 Chap. VI. — Protestantism and reason 87 § I. — Primitive Protestantism — Age of Leo X. — The real doctrines of Luther and his accomplices — Denial of reason and liberty — War declared against science — Immediate effects of these doctrines 90 § II. — The negative principle of Protestantism, or the rejection of authority in matters of religion — Fanaticism and rationalism the twofold fruit of this principle 105 Chap. VII. — Modern infidelity — Infidelity prevails first in England, afterward in France and Germany — Poverty of the infidel philosophy of the eighteenth century — Theological infidelity in Germany zix Chap. VIII. — The principal forms of contemporary infidelity — Materialism — Pantheism — Sophistry and scepticism — Spiritual rationalism 124 PART II. Chap. I.— What Faith is 139 Chap. II. — Infidelity: In what it consists 157 Chap. III. — It is impossible to attribute the infidelity of the present day to the progress of reason and science — Numerous conversions among learned men — Augustin Thierry and Maine de Biran 163 Chap. IV.— Real causes of infidelity — First cause : Ignorance of religion 181 Chap. V. — Causes of religious ignorance — It is often voluntary, culpable ignorance — Levity and moral indifference of most infidels 192 Chap. VI. — Materialism — On what it rests — The soul materialized — How the soul arrives at this state, and what moral treatment must be followed to raise it from this degradation Chap. VII. — Scepticism — In what it consists — Different causes of scepticism 212 Chap. VIII. — Corruption of the understanding — Sophistry and its victims 236 Chap. IX. — Unbelievers who admit the fundamental principles of natural religion — Causes of their unbelief 332 Chap. X. — Recapitulation of the causes of infidelity — How a young man may become an infidel 243 Digitized by Google.

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